ſhould execute that Power, becauſe you have, in a manner, laid your Sins at my Door.
‘But perhaps this is one Reaſon which hath determined me to act in a milder Manner with you: For, as no private Reſentment ſhould ever influence a Magiſtrate, I will be ſo far from conſidering your having depoſited the Infant in my Houſe, as an Aggravation of your Offence, that I will ſuppoſe, in your Favour, this to have proceeded from a natural Affection to your Child; ſince you might have ſome Hopes to ſee it thus better provided for, than was in the Power of yourſelf, or its wicked Father, to provide for it. I ſhould indeed have been highly offended with you, had you expoſed the little Wretch in the Manner of ſome inhuman Mothers, who ſeem no leſs to have abandoned their Humanity, than to have parted with their Chaſtity. It is the other Part of your Offence therefore upon which I intend to admoniſh you, I mean the Violation of your Chaſtity. A Crime, however lightly it may be treated by debauched Perſons, very heinous in itſelf, and very dreadful in its Conſequences.
‘The
